1. What is a Steam Summer Sale? What’s the big deal?

Steam is known for doing at least two giant sales a year (summer, and late December) where many titles are 50% off or more. Almost every popular title that is at least six months old participates, and you can commonly find short-duration flashsales for even better deals. Check the store page often to see what deals are still available, as they will rotate every 12 or 24 hours.

On top of that, Steam gamifies the sale by creating interactive events, such as sale-themed badges to craft (by collecting limited-edition cards during this time) and other wacky functions.

2. What’s new about this Monster Sale?

For the Monster Summer Sale, there is a browser game to play in, damaging enemies and trying to stay alive. The browser game records the number of clicks, the bosses defeated, and more to unlock additional flash sales the next day. (These unlocked flash sales always start at 9 am PST/12 noon EST and will run for 48 hours.)

This is a clicker game in the vein of Cookie Clicker or the free-to-play AdVenture Capitalist–all you do is click buttons, which have short cooldown timers before you can click them again, and you can unlock more buttons, reduce the cooldown times on the buttons, and have buttons auto-click themselves. Your Steam level and your Steam 2015 Summer Sale Badge level will grant you special abilities so that you can do more uhh, “damage” to the bosses. (Clicker games can also hog the performance of your computer’s hardware, so I wouldn’t advise playing on a battery-fed device.)

There are multiple waves or screens of enemies; use the buttons on the above-right to change them. If the sounds and/or music are annoying, toggle them on/off with the buttons on the bottom left.

As always, you are encouraged to play your new games, which will provide you with Steam Trading Cards. Completing and turning in sets of cards increases your Steam Rank as well as your Summer Sale Badge rank (if done during the sale, which runs thru June 22nd). Of course, you can turn unused items into gems, buy more cards with gems, buy and sell cards in the Steam Market, and so on. See this post for more information; note that there are no Steam Auctions at this time.

Let’s just hope these games aren’t hiding a bitcoin manufacturing system… I’m kidding. I hope. But the point is, Steam users can unlock additional sales, which are hinted on the sale’s splash page.

According to |N| Octo, #3 is currently assigned to run pl_cactuscanyon, and #16 is assigned rd_asteroid. This morning, each server was empty with a different map queued up. I’m not sure if Octo took them down, or voting or other methods changed the map. Stay tuned — [N] Obey

Here’s the summary:

Launch of the Mann Co. Beta Maps, an Early Access program

Now hosted on Newbs’ Servers #16 and #17 #3!!

A tweak to the game mechanics on Heavy weapons: Winding up via holding the secondary attack now counts toward reducing the one-second penalty

In other words, you can fire the weapon, hold secondary attack to keep it spun up without firing, then resume firing without again suffering the one-second damage ramp up penalty.

Also, you can simply start spinning up early, so that when you begin firing, you will suffer less or none of the ramp up penalty.

Reminder: Bread Boxes cannot be crafted after tomorrow (7/9/14)

Fixed some item skins and item equip regions

(Added 7/9/14) In case you missed it: This comic will summarize the ongoing Team Fortress 2 story!

(Added 7/10/14) Includes the 7/9/14 patch notes, of fixes to the two beta maps. I posted these after the 7/8/14 patch notes.

Mann Co. Beta Maps! …Do What Now?!

The Official TF2 Blog informed us today that they want the greater Steam community to play some undertested beta maps and provide feedback. Sound like something you’re interested in? Because they are live on the TF2Newbs servers now!

Server #16 is now Asteroid, a robot destruction beta map: launching a new game mode! In robot destruction mode, players compete to destroy the other teams’ harmless enemy robots and/or fetch an intelligence briefcase to earn points, unlocking more waves of robots until a winning point total is reached by one team first.

rd_asteroid

Server #17 #03 is now Cactus Canyon, a payload beta map with two short stages, instead of one long stage like all payload maps before this one.

Server #17 is currently 24/7 pl_badwater, which is what server #03 had been.

You can join these TF2 servers by enabling the drop-down console, and typing one of the following to join:

server16.tf2newbs.com
server17.tf2newbs.com
server3.tf2newbs.com

Got feedback? Go here for server 16 or server 3. They are beta maps, so they’re somewhat unfinished and may end up being tweaked or overhauled.

The following is a beginner-level guide describing all of the ways to earn weapons and cosmetic items in TF2. For details on items, gameplay, or anything else Team Fortress related, be sure to bookmark The Official TF2 Wiki.

Updated 7/31/16:

Updated 4/23/16:

More info about free hats you can earn

More info about Australium and Graded (contract) Weapons

So you’ve just started playing TF2, learned some maps, captured some points, and found a couple of nifty items. But other players are blowing you up with awesome weapons while wearing ridiculous hats. How can you get more weapons and cosmetic items? That’s what this guide is for, so read on!

This short tutorial on TF2 Matchmaking for the differences in Casual/Comp play and how to create your own game

Table of Contents

0. Being Free-to-Play vs. Being Premium

1. Earn Items By Playing TF2

Achievement Items

Free Cosmetics You Can Earn

The TF2 Item Drop System

Rewards for Playing Mann vs. Machine, the Players-vs.-Bots “Horde Mode”

Earn TF2 Items While Playing Other Steam Games

2. Crafting Items: What To Do with Metal, Crates, and Robot Parts

3. Buying Items From the Mann Co. Store or the Steam Market

Explanation of Item Qualities like Stranges and Unusuals

Updated: Rocket Launchers as example of price comparison

Updated: Typical item prices of each quality

Decorated Weapons, earned by contracts

Trading-Up Items

4. Trading Items With Other Players

5. Free Unusuals!

6. What To Do If You Have Too Many Items

7. Helpful Links

0. First: Are you Free-to-Play?

There are two kinds of TF2 accounts: free-to-play accounts and premium accounts.

Free-to-play (or “F2P”) accounts only get one page of 50 inventory slots, limited crafting options, can only drop some basic items, and most importantly, have limited trading options.

Premium accounts start with six pages of inventory slots (300 total), have full crafting options, can drop basic and rare items, and have normal trading options.

Why aren’t all accounts Premium? The reason is to reduce the number of spammers and cheaters on Steam by attaching a small monetary cost to each account, so that thousands of accounts cannot be used by a single person for these schemes.

So if you are free-to-play, you will not have full access to all of the kinds of items out there. There are a couple of simple ways to gain a premium account:

Buy something in the Mann Co. Store, anything at all, no minimum. A single US$0.49 weapon is all you need.

Buy the Orange Box from the Steam Store for US$19.99, which grants you a Premium TF2 account as well as two other Valve games: Half-Life 2 and Portal.

Have someone trade or gift you an Upgrade to Premium Gift, which is a tool item that makes your account premium when used.

However, your Steam Account must be premium to be able to trade from the Steam Client, which means you’ve made at least $5 worth of purchases. Steam Trading and Steam Chat are two features disabled if you’ve never bought anything on the Steam Account you’re using.

Why would someone give you a Premium Gift? Doing so grants the giver a Professor Speks accessory, or adds to the counter of their existing Professor Speks.

If you make a purchase that upgrades your account to premium, you are asked to refer one person on your friends list as someone who has helped you in the game. That is how a person is awarded a Professor Speks or ranks up its counter.

Now that you know your status, here are all of the ways that you can acquire new items:

1. Earn Items By Playing the Game

Earn “Achievement Items”

There are hundreds of achievements to earn in Team Fortress 2. Just play the game, and if you complete a specific task, the achievement will unlock and announce it to everyone on the server. You can check which achievements you have or haven’t learned in your Steam Client.

If you earn enough class-specific achievements, you will earn one of three weapons available for each class. These items significantly change the role or options available for that class, such as a Sandvich healing item for the Heavy, or a Huntsman bow that replaces the Sniper’s rifle! Here is the full list of 27 achievement weapons in TF2.

Note: These achievement-reward items have the untradable trait, so you can’t trade them away later. And if you use them to craft metal or another item, the resulting item will carry that untradable trait, and the game will warn you that that will occur. This is to keep players from having dozens of separate Steam accounts just to farm for items. Only achievement-reward items will have the untradable trait.

There are “achievement servers” in the TF2 community, but TF2Newbs doesn’t have one; they’re frowned on by Valve.

All-Class Cosmetics You Can Earn

Earn the Ghastly Gibus all-class hat by earning a domination on a player wearing their own Gibus. There are multiple, slightly different versions (the Ghastly, Ghastlier, Ghastlierest, Ghostly, and Galvanized), and dominated any player except for the Galvanized will earn you your own Ghastly Gibus (the other versions were awarded earlier). You can earn this achievement at any time, and it can be worn at all time, unlike many Halloween-themed items. It is paintable, but cannot be traded.

You can also get the Pyrovision Goggles by dominating a player that is wearing them. Pryovision items changes the scenery on most official maps so that you play in a pastel-painted world of balloons and laughter instead of the screams and gibs of your enemies. You can change its vision in your Advanced Options menu.

Earn a Mann Co. Cap all-class hat the first time you buy anything at the Mann Co. Store, regardless of amount spent. (You can only earn one.) It is paintable, but not tradable. You can also buy a real-life version from New Era. There is a second hat, the Mann Co. Online Cap, which you can earn by buying something from the Mann Co. Online store, which sells real-life Valve merchandise like posters, T-shirts, and hats!

Earn the all-class World Traveler’s Hat by buying your first Map Stamp, which is not an item, but a donation that goes directly to the author(s) of the Community-made map you choose. You can level it up by buying more Map Stamps. When you play on a map where you’ve purchased map stamps, you can give your hat unusual effects! This hat is paintable, but not tradable.

Other cosmetics you can earn by playing TF2:

There are lots of other cosmetics that can be earned during the annual Halloween or Winter Holiday events! See my Halloween Items FAQ to learn how to earn Halloween-themed items. Some can be earned at any time, like the Ghastly Gibus.

Director’s Vision: Earn this all-class taunt by recording a replay of yourself playing the game, then enter the video editing window. It’s that easy.

Frontline Field Recorder: Get this hat by uploading a replay video to YouTube from within TF2, and earn 1,000 lifetime views.

Party Hat and TF Birthday Noisemaker: Get an all-class hat and an action item by playing the game on August 24th, TF2′s anniversary launch date. The Noisemaker can only be used on August 24th (or any server that has Birthday Mode enabled).

Spirit of Giving: Earn this accessory playing during the annual Winter Holiday. Rank it up by gifting, such as using a Secret Saxton tool item.

Earn Items by Playing the Game

Team Fortress 2 wants to reward you for playing, and does so by granting you periodic “item drops”. Approximately every hour you play in a week, up to roughly 10 hours a week, you will earn a random item, usually a weapon but rarely (perhaps a 3% chance) a cosmetic item such as a hat. Most, but not all, craftable weapons can drop via this system, and if you don’t play much one week, that extends the playing time where you can earn items in the next week only. “Weeks” for this purpose begin on Wednesdays at 7 PM Eastern Standard Time (which is also Thursdays at midnight Greenwich Standard Time; doesn’t change for Daylight Savings Time).

The list of possible weapons available is roughly the same as the craftable weapon list plus the achievement-reward weapon list (i.e. almost all non-stock weapons). “Stock” weapons are the default weapons and action-slot items of each class, which are also the only weapons that most computer-controller bots use, and they’re the only weapons you can access in those rare, unfortunate times when your server loses connection to the item server :( Stock weapons never drop, and you can’t lose access to them by crafting or trading.

By a similar but separate system, crates (and rarely, other tool items such as Name Tags instead) can drop for you as well, and they are NOT limited by your weekly playing time. Of course, you need keys to open crates; they are basically opportunities for Valve to make money by selling you keys. Crates always provide a random item out of a list, and the series number relates to the list of items available to drop; most crates drop Strange-quality weapons (with a 1% chance for a random Unusual item instead!).

Crate drops are rarer than in years past; players got annoyed by having too many crates. Sometimes, such as during the winter holiday, crate drops will occur more often. You may also get a crate once a week in your account just for logging in. They’re simply “opportunities” to spend money on keys for virtual items.

Earn Items by Buying and/or Playing Other Games

Many cosmetics can be earned just by buying certain games. Some were only available during pre-order, but many are still available if you buy the game today. Here is the current list of games that award TF2 items, maintained by the Official TF2 Wiki. Note that many of these items will be Genuine quality.

For example, the $4.99 game Poker Night at the Inventory features five unlockable items (some of which may be difficult to do so), as you play Texas Hold ‘Em against the Heavy, Strongbad and other characters. You need to get good at playing poker, but you can earn:

Earn Items by Playing “Mann Up Mode” in MvM

Mann vs. Machine, or “MvM”, is a horde mode where you and five other players form a RED team that defends against an onslaught of class-specific BLU robots. The free-to-play “Boot Camp” mode does NOT earn you items, but is good for practicing the game. The real rewards can be gained by completing “Mann Up” missions, which require a brown Tour of Duty ticket that costs US$0.99 in the Mann Co. Store (not to be confused with the white Surplus tickets). Tickets are used up and rewards are earned only when you successfully win an entire mission.

Each completed mission earns you an item drop, in exchange for your Tour of Duty ticket, if you did not previously have credit for that mission on your current Tour.

If playing the “Two Cities” Tour, you will instead earn some robot parts, and possibly even a Fabricator, after each mission.

Each completed Tour of missions will earn you different rewards, on top of your usual mission rewards:

“Two Cities” Tours reward Killstreak Kits, and one or two higher-tier Fabricators.

Other Tours reward one of several kinds of Strange Botkiller weapons, depending on both random luck and which Tour had been completed.

Completing any Advanced or Expert difficulty Tour also has a small chance (~2%) of getting an Australium weapon! (You won’t have any chance to drop them on Intermediate Tours.)

2. You Can Craft New Items

You can take undesired items and turn them into metal, which is used to craft other weapons.

two weapons of same class —> one scrap

three scrap <—> one reclaimed

three reclaimed <—> one refined

What Can You Do with Metal?

Use as a trading currency (see Trading, below)

Craft cosmetics, such as hats

Craft weapons

Crafting Cosmetic Items

There are two ways to craft cosmetic items such as hats. Here is the first:

three refined —> one random cosmetic item

The above menu says the output is a “random headgear”, but in reality the output is some kind of cosmetic, such as a hat or an item that equips elsewhere on your person, and are never weapons. For instance, you might get a Football Helmet for a Heavy, or an Itsy-Bitsy Spyer that hangs on the hip of your Sniper, or a Big Mann on Campus sweater for a Scout. These items are always Unique quality; you’ll never get Stranges or the like. Almost every non-Limited cosmetic can be crafted, but of course, what you receive is randomized.

But if you want to ensure that you get an item that a specific character can use, consider the next formula:

four refined + class token —> random class-specific cosmetic item

With the above formula, you apply some extra metal and a token, but you ensure that you’ll get an item wearable by the token’s class (and possibly other classes also, depending on the item you receive). Use this formula if you really want more cosmetics for your favorite class.

See this page for a list of many other crafting recipes, which are also found in your Crafting menu.

Crafting Weapons

There is a list of craftable weapons under the second tab, “Common Items”. Simply follow the recipe to craft a desired weapon. If you lack the items, you can’t make the item, but you may be able to trade someone for the parts you need (or just buy it from the Mann Co. Store instead).

The top recipe reads, “Fabricate Class Weapons” with the following recipe:

scrap + class token + slot token –> random matching weapon

The above formula will generate one random weapon out of the possible craftable weapons that match both the class and weapon slot of the tokens. For example, following this recipe with a Pyro token and a Secondary token can generate a flare gun, detonator, reserve shooter, manmelter, scorch shot, or panic attack. See the “Crafting Weapon Classifications” heading in the the TF2 Wiki Crafting page for the full list.

What Are Crates For?

Crates are opened with keys (usually Mann Co. Crate Keys, but special crates require special keys), and they can be purchased from the Mann Co. Store for US$2.49, traded, or bought and sold in the Steam Market. Opening a crate provides you one random item (usually Strange) from its short drop list, but rarely (about a 1% chance) grant you an Unusual hat!

Oh, if you have too many crates, you should probably just delete any duplicates you have. You’re unlikely to sell any on the Market, as you’d only get one cent, and there are thousands of them for sale already. You’ll always have more crates than you’ll ever open–they’re simply opportunites to buy a random Strange item.

What Are Robot Parts For?

If you have robot parts in your possession, you have probably been playing some Mann vs. Machine “Two Cities” missions. These are used for crafting certain Killstreak Kits. See this MvM Item FAQ for more information.

3. You Can Buy Items

Access the Mann Co. Store within the TF2 game itself. You can’t while you’re playing in a server, however.

Items You Can Buy from the Mann Co. Store

You can buy most Unique-quality items in the Mann Co. Store. Unique is the standard item quality that doesn’t do anything special, and signifies something that is probably not rare. Want a different kind of rocket launcher for your Soldier? It’s probably US$1 or less. Want a new community-designed hat? Snap one up for US$2 to $10. Just look at the catalog of items in the in-game menu, and purchase with your Steam Wallet funds.

Don’t want to bother with crafting or trading, but you want all the possible options available for your favorite class? You can buy a Starter Pack the gives you one of each Unique weapon for that class! They run between $2 and $7, depending on the class; some classes like the Soldier have more items, so they’re more expensive.

You can also buy (from either the in-game Store, or from the Market) an Unlocked Class Crate, which will drop you one random cosmetic equippable by that class. You could get just about anything. They’re $2.49 in the Mann Co. Store.

You can’t buy everything at the store, such as an Unusual hat… but there’s lots to buy on the Steam Market!

Items You Can Buy on the Steam Market

You can’t buy most plain Unique-quality weapons in the Market, but you can buy Unique Tools such as crates, keys, robot parts, and killstreak kits.

Also, almost all Strange, Haunted, Vintage, Collector’s, or Unusual item can be bought and sold on the Steam Market.

Unique items that are also Limited can also list on the Market. Limited items cannot be crafted, item dropped, or bought from the Mann Co. Store anymore.

“Wait a minute. Why do I need an explanation of item qualities?” you ask.

Not all rocket launchers are created alike. (Set aside the Black Box and the Liberty Launcher and all those others; we’re talking just about the stock Rocket Launcher.) The stock Rocket Launchers are all alike, of course.

But there are many kind of reskinned rocket launchers. They’re all functionally the same. How they’re different is that they might be promotional items, have different colors on the weapon itself, or have a counter to track kills or other statistics. (The pictured Rocket Launcher is a Decorated weapon; scroll down to the next section to learn more about Decorated weapons.)

Here’s a comparison for the different rocket launchers out there, and the cheapest price for one on the Steam Market (as of this writing):

All of the above rocket launchers behave identically in play. But they’re also a show of status: players may assume that if you’re using the stock rocket launcher, that you haven’t been playing very long. Sure, it’s a silly game, but it stands out all the same.

Okay–here’s the different item qualities out there:

Stock items are items that every TF2 account has access to; they cannot be removed, sold, or traded.

Unique items are common items, often found via the TF2 item drop system or from certain older crates.

They can typically be traded, but not marketed.

Achievement items and some Halloween-themed items are untradeable Uniques.

Limited items are uncommon; they can no longer be purchased or crafted, such as retired hats.

They can be traded or marketed.

Vintage items are simply items that were crafted before March 15, 2011.

These are cheap to buy on the Market.

Strange items track total kills (on weapons) or points scored (on other items) while the item was equipped.

Most commonly, Stranges are dropped from a crate; the item is randomly chosen.

A few Strange items are rare, such as the Kritzkrieg.

A few Strange items have been made so by Strangifier items, which are also sometimes rare.

Australium weapons have a golden sheen, but are otherwise Strange weapons.

They are a rare reward for completing Mann vs, Machine tours, and are valuable.

Haunted items are usually Halloween-themed cosmetics.

In some cases, they can only be worn during Halloween/Full Moon times.

They can be purchased cheaply on the Steam Market.

Genuine items are promotional items, often given away for (pre)purchasing another Steam game.

Many of these can be purchased on the Steam Market.

Collector’s items are rare, requiring a rarely-dropped Chemistry Set plus two hundred identical copies of the item to craft.

They can be purchased on the Market, but are usually expensive.

Killstreak weapons show in the killfeed how many kills the player has earned since their last death.

The killstreak property only modifies the weapon, and doesn’t change its quality color. But it does add value to the weapon.

Specialized Killstreak kits also add a temporary visual sheen to the weapon after five kills are scored during the same life.

Professional Killstreak kits add the visual sheen and an eye effect to your character as well.

Unusual items are rare, with a visual effect centered near the head of the character.

They are very rarely (1%) dropped from a crate, and are always valuable.

See my MvM Item FAQ for more information about Australium weapons and Killstreak Kits.

Decorated Items

A decorated item is a weapon, cosmetic, or taunt that has been reskinned with different visual effects (and rarely, different sounds). Below is the Warbird, a rare decorated rocket launcher from the Tough Break season:

A ”season” is a period of weeks, directly after a major content patch such as the Tough Break Update, that allows players to complete missions/contracts in order to earn random items with randomly generated paint jobs. A decorated weapon or item includes the following:

One of six Grades of rarity, which determines the text color of the item. Civilian is very common; Elite is rare.

Civilian: contracts only

Freelance: contracts only

Mercenary: contracts or crates

Commando: contracts or crates

Assassin: crates only

Elite: crates only

Each item Collection (of item skins or “paint job” themes) has many weapons in a variety of Grades.

For example, items from the Concealed Killer Collection are generally camouflage-themed.

Some Collections are only Grades 1-4, and some are only Grades 3-6 (see above).

Each skin is tied to its specific grade. For example: The “Warbird” above is always a Grade 6 Elite.

Each Weapon has one of five random levels of Wear, which changes the look of the weapon skin somewhat. All are equally as common, but the more Wear variations are less popular because the weapon skin is less visible. (The wear patterns are also randomly positioned to give a further uniqueness to each individual item.)

Factory New (most popular and valuable)

Minimal Wear

Field-Tested

Well-Worn

Battle Scarred (most of the paint job has worn off)

NOTE: Weapons DO NOT increase their Wear when used. They have a set level of Wear when dropped which does not change. A weapon’s Grade, Skin, and Wear is entirely cosmetic and does not change its gameplay whatsoever.

Also, these Weapons and Cosmetics are Limited quality. Unboxed Weapons and Cosmetics will have a chance of being Strange (and in a few cases, being Unusual, or both!)

These weapons will be tradable and marketable. If you wish to trade or sell a weapon, look up its worth on the Market or another site like backpack.tf first, so you don’t get scammed. Unusual items are always valuable and very rare.

How to earn Graded items:

Buy-in to the current update Season by purchasing the appropriate pass from the Mann Co. Store. This will grant you a fixed number of contracts to complete over a set period of time (even if you join late in the Season). Completing these contracts (with tasks such as completing objectives on a certain map or getting kills while playing a certain class or weapon) will earn you a graded weapon OR one of several Weapon Cases.

NOTE: You can purchase these Weapon Cases from the Steam Market also, as the cases, their corresponding keys, and the items obtainable within are all marketable and tradable.

Or, you can simply buy Cases and the appropriate Key for the Case, and use the Key in your TF2 inventory screen.

Qualifying items include any Freelance Grade or higher item (of any Collection), and any Strange item (Graded or not).

ANY item with the “untradeable” trait also qualifies, but the resulting Stat Clock will also be “untradeable”.

Yes, this means you can use your untradeable Achievement items to create a Stat Clock!

During the annual Halloween event, you can trade-in three qualifying items for a random, untradeable Halloween cosmetic.

Find this function by right-clicking your Soul Gargoyle tool item.

How can you tell the difference between a Strange Graded Item, and a vanilla Graded Item with a Stat Clock attached? Look at the item name: one will be Strange, and the other will say “Stat Clock”.

4. You Can Ask Others to Trade or Give You Items

Yes, there are gifters who play TF2 regularly. Very few players just go around looking for Newbs who need items. But there are plenty of players wiling to give a couple of weapons or an odd hat to someone who has none. The important thing is to be nice and civil. Spamming chat with demands for free items will annoy anyone who would have been willing, and that behavior can get you banned from the Newbs servers.

If you want people to trade or gift you, show some proper etiquette:

Be gracious and don’t make demands. Don’t spam the text chat or the voice chat.

Many players are willing to trade away a spare copy of a weapon (not cosmetics) for a single scrap metal, or its equal value of any two weapons. Likewise, if you happen to have extra copies of an item, you can offer to trade two of them to someone for one weapon you need.

If there is an item you want to trade for, or to ask for free, you should ask people in chat if they have specific items you’re looking for. But don’t spam the chat with constant messages.

Look at your friends’ profiles, and click on Inventory to see their TF2 items. Unless their profiles are private, you can find out what spare items a friend has, which can help you make them a trade or gift offer.

When you really want to trade items, go to a trade server, such as Newbs #2 and #18 Trade Servers. You won’t be interrupting anyone’s game with trade offers or chatter, and you’ll meet up with others actively looking to trade.

Trading Items for Items

Trades do not involve the exchange of Steam Wallet funds (that’s what the Steam Market is for). So how do you trade items for other items and know one of you isn’t being cheated out of value? Over the years, players have established a de facto economy by using certain common and uncommon items as currencies, specifically metal, keys, and earbuds.

Metal is the crafting ingredient discussed above to create random cosmetics and weapons. Because of these uses, metal also has worth in the economy.

Common item prices are discussed in “ref”, an abbreviation for refined metal. A refined metal is 1.00 ref.

A reclaimed metal is .33 ref, since it takes three reclaimed to make a refined.

A scrap metal is worth .11 ref, since it takes three scrap to make a reclaimed (nine to make a refined).

For example: A hat worth 1.33 ref is worth a refined and three scrap.

If you play TF2 10 hours a week and smelt all of your non-cosmetic drops into metal, you’ll average one refined metal in three weeks.

Keys, or standard Mann Co. Crate Keys, cost US$2.49 in the Mann Co. Store. Since they’re tradable (after a week) and the price doesn’t change, they are good for trading valuable items. Popular, in-demand items that are not very rare are often measured in keys, such as taunts or popular hats.

How much ref a key is worth changes based on the demand in the economy (how bad people want keys, or metal). Refined metal is also useful for making “change”, since a key cannot be broken into smaller values. As of January 2016, a key is worth about 20 ref.

Buds, or Earbuds, are a somewhat rare, Limited cosmetic item. Buds were often used as currency for rare, high-demand items, such as Unusuals. They’re not used for trading much anymore.

5. Where Can I Get Free Unusual Hats?

The following is a list of phrases people enter into their search engines:

how to get easy hats in tf2

tf2 free hats

tf2 easy unusuals

tf2 item giveaway

tf2 free keys

free tf2 unusuals

…and so on. I know this because the blog dashboard shows me certain search engine terms that bring readers to this blog. Lots and lots of TF2 players want free unusual hats, keys and items. New players beg for free items, and sometimes start raging when they don’t get what they want.

The TF2Newbs community, like many other public gaming communities out there, frown on begging. Repeatedly asking for items disrupts the game and can lead to a permanent ban on Newbs servers. Would you want your games interrupted by beggars?

My point is, earn or buy items yourself. Trading exists so that you can meet other players and swap items. It’s a metagame–a game within a game–to collect desirable items. Don’t disrupt a good game by begging; go to a trade server if you’re looking for something specific.

TF2Newbs’ Trade Servers (type these into your console to jump right in):

connect s2.tf2newbs.com

connect s18.tf2newbs.com

6. Too Many Items?

Well, that’s embarrassing: it is certainly possible to fill your backpack with so many crates, weapons, tools, and cosmetics that you cannot hold more. When this happens, you won’t receive more items from the item drop system; it “stops the clock”, so to speak. What do?

Delete worthless items: crates and untradable duplicate items are the only ones I would advise deleting. You’re not likely to sell them on the Market or trade them for any value. (The only crates that have a value are crates numbered in the 20s–because each class has one that only carries items for that class–and crates #30, #40, #50 and #60, which are rare and may drop high-demand Strange weapons.)

Condense your metal: 18 weapons <-> 9 scrap metal <-> 3 reclaimed metal <-> 1 refined metal. Refined metal can “carry more value” in a smaller space, and is faster if you want to trade for a valuable item. Condense your space further by trading for keys or more valuable items.

Buy a Backpack Expander, or several, from the Mann Co. Store (US$0.99) or the Steam Market. Each one gives you 100 slots (two pages) more, up to a maximum of 2000 slots or forty pages. This is very necessary if you’re collecting robot parts from “Two Cities” MvM Tours, or trying to get one copy of every weapon.

Put items up for sale on the Steam Market. While on the Market, the item is removed from your inventory, so you can fill those slots once more. You can remove the item from the Market if it doesn’t sell, and then you will receive the item once more.

Check the Crafting List and see if there are any desirable weapons or cosmetic items you can craft. For example, if you don’t have a B.A.S.E. Jumper parachute for your Soldier, you can craft one at the cost of a Sticky Jumper, a Buff Banner, and a reclaimed metal.

7. Other Useful Links You Should Bookmark in Your Browser:

The Official TF2 Wiki’s Item page can answer almost any question about TF2 items.

I hope this blogpost has helped you learn about the wide variety, and multiple functions, of the items of Team Fortress 2. The item-acquisition game within the “war-themed hat simulator” keeps players coming back. If I have helped you in your quest for mighty loot, feel free to say so in the comments, or post in the forums.

This guide focuses more on the items that can be found in the TF2 MvM game. See the links below if you’re looking for something else regarding MvM.Thank you for all the clicks! 17,000 hits and counting!

Links

This Community guide does a great job in telling you what upgrades you should/shouldn’t purchase in MvM.

Go here to learn about the kinds of items in TF2, and how to get more of them.

Table of Contents

0. Updates

1. MvM Game Modes: Mann Up vs. Boot Camp

2. Tours of Duty, and the Rewards They Give

3. Botkiller Weapons

4. Killstreaker Weapons, Kits, Fabricators, and Robot Parts

5. Australium Weapons

0. Updates

Updated August 11, 2016:

Added links at top, incl. upgrade guide.

Added more pictures to break up all the text, and some clearer explanations. Removed price information.

Updated December 26, 2014:

Added: Now all Advanced and Expert Tour Completions grant the same chance of earning an Australium weapon.

Updated September 18th, 2014:

Completing the same Mann Up mission over and over does not consume your tickets, nor does it earn you any items.

Updated July 13th, 2014:

Added this link which provides GIFs showing all of the Professional Killstreak eye effects in every color.

Added this link which shows many of the Specialized Killstreak weapons’ colored sheens.

Updated June 24th, 2014:

The five weapons released during the Love & War Update now have Killstreak Kits that can drop.

Added “important waves” to Two Cities’ Tour mission descriptions.

Updated April 4th, 2014:

Some killstreak kits are now available in Mann Co. Crates, starting with crate #83.

Tour of Duty Tickets are US$0.99 each, and Squad Surplus Vouchers are US$1.99 each in the Mann Co. Store (not the 49 cents and 99 cents respectively I had posted). The tickets had been on sale during my original post.

Updated February 8th, 2014:

(My mistake!) Standard killstreak kits, which drop at the end of every Two Cities’ Tour, are only useable for one specific weapon. This is also true for Specialized, and Professional Killstreak Kits and their Fabricators.

For example, you may finish a Two Cities’ Tour and receive a “Black Box Killstreak Kit”, along with your other item drops.

As of the 2/7/2014 patch, the following weapons can now drop killstreak kits and fabricators (and did not before):

(My mistake!) A Tour Badge is earned by completing any one mission of that Tour, not the entire Tour.

1. MvM Game Modes: Mann Up vs. Boot Camp

Boot Camp mode is the free-to-play version. You don’t need tickets to play, but you’re not going to get any item drops at the end of the missions; you still get your usual timed item drops as you play. You can also play Boot Camp mode on private servers, so you can enjoy benefits on those. A change implemented in 2016 allows Boot Camp games to hold more than 6 players, depending on the permissions of the server. I’ve played in games with 10 players. Boot Camp mode is perfect for practicing a new class, weapon, or map.

Mann Up mode is the pay-to-play version, and it has completely different missions (waves of enemies) on the same maps. Mann Up rewards players with item drops and, for those who complete Tours of Duty, special weapons such as Botkillers and Killstreakers! Mann Up mode is only available on Valve-run servers. Players in Mann Up mode are seriously trying to win, and the number of Tours they have on their belt speaks to their knowledge of what works and what doesn’t; unlike TF2, some weapons or methods are useless, and some are almost essential (like having a medic and an engineer, or resistance upgrades on a heavy). Practice in Boot Camp until you’re familiar with the meta, or frustrated players may leave or kick you.

NOTE: You should already have a Power Up Canteen (or the Battery Canteen is the same thing with a different look). If you don’t have one for some reason, you can craft one for 4 scrap in the Crafting menu.

If you’re hoping to earn a very rare Australium weapon (see below), you need to complete an Advanced or Expert Mann Up Tour, which will require between 3 to 6 tickets to complete each Tour.

Six MvM Maps:

Big Rock (mvm_bigrock) is a very long MvM map that launched with the introduction of robot Engineers into the game.

Coal Town (mvm_coaltown) is an MvM with a single downhill dirt ramp leading to where the robots spawn.

A Boot Camp-only reskin of this map, Ghost Town (mvm_ghost_town), takes place at night with the robots reskinned as zombies. Neither of these have robot Engineers.

Decoy (mvm_decoy) is a short map known for a wooden overpass bridge near the robots’ spawns, and where two bridges cross a deep gulch near the bomb drop point. Robot engineers are never present in this map.

Mannhattan (mvm_mannhattan) is one of the Two Cities Update maps. This map features two additional forward spawns (doors A and B) where gatebots–robots with a glowing yellow head–will attempt to unlock, in order to have a shorter route and more bombs to deliver to the bomb drop point.

Mannworks (mvm_mannworks) is a foggy map surrounded by gray rocks, with two robot spawns and a tank spawn set into the cliffs. This map never has robot Engineers.

Rottenburg (mvm_rottenburg), the other Two Cities map, takes place in a German-style town. The robots’ paths wind around buildings and over ramps, and the city proper can be confusing to get around.

2. Tours of Duty, and the Rewards They Give

A Tour of Duty is a collection of missions, across several maps, on official Valve MvM servers. Each tour has from 3-6 missions, and each mission requires a Tour of Duty Ticket. The tickets (which cost US$0.99 in the Mann Co. Store) are tan with a picture of Saxton Hale on them, and are only used up if you succeed in the mission. “Mann Up” Mode refers to this pay-to-play style, as opposed to free-to-play “Boot Camp”. Each player has the option, before beginning a mission, to use one Squad Surplus Voucher each. These vouchers are grey with a treasure chest on them (and cost US$1.99 in the Mann Co. Store), and are likewise used up only if you succeed in the mission. If you beat the mission, each player receives one extra standard item drop. (They don’t provide any more robot parts, nor do they provide a better chance for Australiums or other random loot. It’s functionally a six-player Secret Saxton that your team receives when you win.)

Rewards for a Tour of Duty

This player completed a single “Two Cities” Tour mission.

The real rewards are earned when completing the Tour.

When you finish a single mission, you will receive:

Credit for that current mission if you haven’t already done it on your current tour

You earn the badge for that Tour, if you haven’t already

One random item drop (for example, a Mad Milk)

Plus one additional random item drop for each Squad Surplus Voucher used

All of these random item drops have the usual ~3% chance of dropping a hat or other cosmetic/tool item.

(Two Cities tours only) A random number (4 to 7) of robot parts, some of which may be rare

“Two Cities” Tours grant Killstreak Fabricators and Kits.

The other tours grant different varieties of Botkiller Weapons.

All Tours of at least Advanced difficulty have a small chance of dropping an Australium weapon also.

When you finish the last mission in a Tour, you will get the above, and also:

You will receive a random Special Weapon or Kit

Two Cities Tours grant a random Standard Killstreak Kit, plus one or two random Killstreak Fabricators also (see below)

All other Tours grant a random Botkiller Weapon, depending on which Tour you completed (see below)

One increment is added to the applicable badge’s Tour Counter

(Updated 12/22/14): You also have a roughly 2% chance of getting an Australium weapon as well, if you completed an Advanced or Expert Tour

Perhaps Australium weapons are slightly likely to drop soon after Valve pushes a new TF2 update or sale, but who knows?

All the missions are cleared so that you can complete another Tour and get its reward again

You will not get the weapon/kit granted by the Tour until you complete every mission in the Tour. Tours are repeatable; you can keep earning weapons each time you complete all of the missions of the Tour, and ramp your Badge’s counter. Be warned: You can complete the same mission repeatedly in Mann Up mode, but you will not get any item drops whatsoever. But you keep your tickets too, so you can play again. You do have to have a ticket in order to begin play, however. See below for more information on the reward items.

There are five levels of mission difficulty:

Beginner, the easiest (Boot Camp only)

Intermediate (Boot Camp or Mann Up)

“Oil Spill” is the Mann Up Tour

Advanced, the “middle difficulty” (Boot Camp, or Mann Up)

“Steel Trap”, “Mecha Engine”, and “Two Cities” are the three Mann Up Tours

Expert (Boot Camp or Mann Up), the hardest mission difficulty

“Gear Grinder” is the Mann Up Tour

Nightmare, a single zombie-themed mission (Boot Camp only)

Here is a list of the current “Mann Up” Tours of Duty, in order of difficulty:

3. Botkiller Weapons

All Botkiller (BK) weapons are Strange quality, keeping track of the number of the (human player) kills you inflict with them, and they are able to take up to 3 Strange Parts as well. Each time you complete the Tours “Oil Spill”, “Steel Trap”, “Mecha Engine”, or “Gear Grinder”, you will earn one random Botkiller weapon. See above for the list of Tours, which correspond to the types of botkiller weapons (rust, blood, silver, gold, carbonado, and diamond) they reward. There are only 9 kinds of Botkiller weapons at this time, and they are the stock trademark weapons for each class:

Scattergun for the Scout

Rocket Launcher for the Soldier

Flame Thrower for the Pyro

Stickybomb Launcher for the Demoman

Minigun for the Heavy

Wrench for the Engineer

Medi Gun for the Medic

Sniper Rifle for the Sniper

Knife for the Spy

Trivia: The level of the BK weapon is equal to the number of those Tours you completed when you earned the weapon (i.e. your 5th completion of Gear Grinder may grant you a Carbonado or Diamond BK Weapon that is Level 5). BK weapons are essentially reskinned Strange weapons, which are a mild status symbol in the greater TF2 community; players equipped with Botkiller weapons are usually players who have invested more time in the game, and act as a trophy to their skill. They are tradable, but players can simply invest time and tickets to earn a weapon, unlike unusual hats. Fortunately, when you earn a BK weapon, it is ready to use! That is not the case with some Killstreaker weapons, which are much more complicated.

4. Killstreaker Weapons, Kits, Fabricators, and Robot Parts

Killstreaker weapons count your current “kill streak” or number of kills that you have made since your last death. The number of kills in the streak made by killstreaker weapons the player possesses is announced in the killfeed in the top right corner after the player’s name (i.e. ” 2 >” ), and at intervals of five, the killstreak is announced to the whole server at the top of the screen. There are 3 ascending tiers of killstreaker weapons, in order:

Standard Killstreak weapons only do the killstreak counter, as counted above.

Specialized Killstreak weapons do the killstreak counter, and also display a colored sheen to the weapon. The color grows brighter as the wielder’s killstreak increases. There are seven possible sheens:

Team Shine (Red, Blue)

Hot Rod (Pink)

Manndarin (Orange)

Deadly Daffodil (Yellow)

Mean Green (Lime Green)

Agonizing Emerald (Green)

Villainous Violet (Purple)

Professional Killstreak weapons have both the killstreak counter and a killstreak sheen. Also, they cause a glowing particle effect to the wielder’s eyes when a killstreak of at least five kills is attained, similar to the Eyelander’s. There are seven possible effects:

Cerebral Discharge (yellow bolts)

Fire Horns (orange fires and a glowing orange pentagram overhead)

Flames (pink-red cloudy flames)

Hypno-Beam (lavender concentric circles)

Incinerator (green-to-gray smoke floating straight up)

Singularity (yellow-green dancing lights near eyes)

Tornado (gold-bordered dust clouds floating upwards)

Click here to see GIFs of all of the possible Professional Killstreak glowing eyes effects. See this forum thread to see what many weapons’ sheens look like (and to vote on your favorite glowing-eye effect!).

Killstreak kits are the tool items used to make a weapon a killstreak without changing its item quality or other traits. They are keyed to a specific type of weapon, such as a Flare Gun Killstreak Kit. Kits can be applied to a stock item if you choose, creating a separate Unique item in your inventory. Let me say that again: Killstreak kits can be applied to ANY weapon of its type. Yes, you can have a Collector’s Professional Killstreaker Sandvich. Or a Botkiller Standard Killstreaker Stickybomb Launcher. Or a Vintage Specialized Killstreaker Backburner. But as you will see below, only Unique-quality Killstreak weapons can be used in the creation of better ones.

Killstreaker fabricators are tool items used to make even better killstreaker kits. They are keyed to a specific type of weapon, such as a Specialized Killstreak Shotgun. However, each fabricator comes with a list of robot parts and weapon(s) needed to construct the kit. It also shows the specific weapon it is keyed to, and what sheens/effects it will grant. Killstreaks and the kits and fabricators required to make them are tiered:

Standard killstreak kits are found each time you complete a Two Cities Tour.

Specialized killstreak fabricators are commonly found each Tour you complete also. In order to finish the kit, each requires:

24 random Battle-Worn robot parts

5 random Reinforced robot parts

1 Unique-quality Standard Killstreak weapon of your choice

Professional killstreak fabricators are rarely found each Tour you complete as well. In order to finish these rare kits, each requires:

16 random Battle-Worn robot parts

6 random Reinforced robot parts

3 random Pristine robot parts

2 Unique-quality Specialized Killstreak weapons of your choice

Fortunately, killstreaker weapons, kits, fabricators, and robot parts are all tradable and giftable, so you’re not forced to earn every single part if you don’t want to. Just remember that only yellow Unique Killstreak weapons can be used in construction of kits, even though they can be applied to Strange, Collector’s, Vintage and others. The robot parts are:

Common

Battle-Worn Robot Money Furnace

Battle-Worn Robot Taunt Processor

Battle-Worn Robot KB-808

Uncommon

Reinforced Robot Emotion Detector

Reinforced Robot Humor Suppression Pump

Reinforced Robot Bomb Stabilizer

Rare

Pristine Robot Currency Digester

Pristine Robot Brainstorm Bulb

An Example: Chung decides to begin a Two Cities tour, and manages to complete the Empire Escalation mission. He finds a huntsman (his random item drop), two battle-worn taunt processors, two battle-worn money furnaces, and a reinforced emotion detector. He has to complete a Tour to get a beloved killstreaker kit. Encouraged, Chung finishes the tour. Besides the other items and robot parts he has found, he earns a Standard Scattergun Killstreaker Kit, and a Specialized Killstreak Black Box Fabricator (Deadly Daffodil) . He’s been playing as Scout, so he applies the Standard Scattergun Killstreaker Kit to his stock Scattergun, giving him a Unique Killstreak Scattergun. Looking at the fabricator, he sees the randomly-generated formula required to earn a Specialized Killstreak Black Box:

1 Unique Standard Killstreak Weapon

13 Battle-Worn Money Furnace

9 Battle-Worn KB-808

2 Battle-Worn Taunt Processor

5 Reinforced Bomb Stabilizer

Chung decides to begin another Tour in order to earn the Spec Black Box. After finishing the Tour of four missions once more, and trading off some scrap for three Money Furnaces he was still missing, he has all of the parts he needs to make the Spec Black Box. When he finished the second tour, he earned another Killstreak Kit–which he will apply to an Ubersaw because he wants to keep his Killstreak Scattergun–and he also got a Professional Killstreak Sandvich Fabricator (Agonizing Emerald, Flames). Chung decides to use the Ubersaw and finishes the Black Box. But he’s not going to use the Black Box to make a ProK Sandvich; he’s going to shop the fabricator around for something he would like to have.

5. Australium Weapons

Very rarely (about 2% of the time) when finishing any Advanced or Expert difficulty Tour, you may be rewarded with an Australium Weapon of a random type as well as the standard Tour Rewards. These are Strange-quality weapons with a very obvious golden sheen continually visible.

These are the weapons currently possible to exist as Australium versions:

Scout: Scattergun, Force-a-Nature

Soldier: Rocket Launcher, Black Box

Pyro: Flame Thrower, Axtinguisher

Demoman: Grenade Launcher, Stickybomb Launcher, Eyelander

Heavy: Minigun, Tomislav

Engineer: Frontier Justice, Wrench

Medic: Blutsauger, Medi Gun

Sniper: Sniper Rifle, SMG

Spy: Ambassador, Knife

All Class: Frying Pan

The Frying Pan is an oddball among these. Being an all-class weapon (unlike other versions of Frying Pan) it will build and repair buildings when held by an Engineer, and it will backstab when equipped by a Spy; don’t think it’s a do-it-all tool for every class. They just allowed the given animations to perform the essential functions for each class.

If you get an Australium Frying Pan, keep it! There are perhaps a couple of dozen in existence, and they are worth thousands of US dollars! This is not a joke. With it in your inventory, people will immediately start to offer you lowball trades for it, and you should ignore them.

I hope this guide is useful to you. Ten hours’ time went into the creation of this guide, drawing heavily from the Official TF2 Wiki and the TF2Newbs community alike. But since many of us were confused about what was required to acquire some of the high-end killstreak weapons, I figured a clear document detailing the process would be an asset. I will try to update this document on occasion as needed.